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October 2, 2013

Autumn Weather and Long Rides Require Slow-Cooking Goodness.

On Sunday, I set out to prove the forecasts wrong. Long rides are not meant to be done inside,
so I geared up, set out, and rode East.
For the first few hours, I pedaled along empty roads and let my mind
wander. The dark and ominous clouds hung far beyond, and with each turn in the
road, I felt like I was riding away from their wrath. Just when I got a bit too confident and
convinced myself that I was in the clear, it happened.

The wind picked up, the rain began to fall,
sheets of water danced across the black asphalt. It would have been beautiful, if I hadn't
been 40 miles from home, and riding straight into a headwind.

The over confident get lazy. I got lazy, and I got caught.

So I put my head down, pedaled harder and two hours later,
stood in front of the laundry machine and pulled pounds of sopping wet clothes
from my froze limbs. A hot shower was the first order of business, and as I
tried to distract myself from the defrosting feeling in my fingers, I
remembered I had a hot meal waiting for me.
Oh, the beauty of the Crockpot.

The beef and sweet potato stew experiment turned out
brilliantly, so I thought I would write the recipe down and share it with y’all
because there are sure to be many more cold and raining bike rides this season.

Ingredients

1 strip steak, or similar cut of beef, cubed and pan seared.

1 large red onion, diced

1 tablespoon Better than Bouillon, Chicken flavor

2 large sweet potatoes cut into 1 inch pieces

2 sweet peppers (I used yellow and red), cut into ½ inch
pieces

1/2 cup farro
1 teaspoon cumin

1 pinch garam masala

Salt to taste

Note: All measurements
are approximate. You really can’t mess
this up!

Method

Place all ingredients in your slow cooker, and cover with
boiling water. Use just enough water
that all ingredients are coverd. Cook on
Medium heat for 8 hours, give or take.
Enjoy.

That’s it. It’s that
easy.

Before you head out on your next epic ride, throw all this
into the Crockpot. And when you get home,
you will so happy you did.